


Smoke Break

by Alexilulu, yormgen



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Developing Relationship, F/M, Face-Sitting, Half-Dryad Ventus, Marijuana, Rough Oral Sex, Trans Character, Trans Male Character, Trans Terra, Werewolf Aqua
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-11
Updated: 2019-05-11
Packaged: 2020-03-01 04:49:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18793327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alexilulu/pseuds/Alexilulu, https://archiveofourown.org/users/yormgen/pseuds/yormgen
Summary: Terra just wants to help people. Aqua thinks that people who say that have ulterior motives.Ven thinks they both just need to chill the fuck out.





	Smoke Break

**Author's Note:**

> This is entirely [Yormgen's](https://archiveofourown.org/users/yormgen) fault. I said some shit, they hit me hard with an image and then I had a little under 6k done at 1am last night.

“Yo, Ven, can you not leave the door open? It scares the cr—” Terra’s raised voice is cut off by his shout of surprise when he pushes past the still-open front door and into their shared living room.

“Sorry, dude, I was kinda indisposed.” Ven shrugs from his position on the couch, grinning nervously. A leaf falls from his hair to his lap, one of many soon to come at the start of the fall semester. He’s used to that, has been since they were kids, watching Ven go from stick-like to hale and hearty with the changing of the seasons. That’s no big deal.

The big deal is the someone holding Ven in her lap, her arms crossed over Ven’s stomach. The difference in their sizes truly does make it seem like he’s nothing more than a leafy, slightly bark-skinned little stuffed animal she’s cuddling. Her chin rests on the crown of his head, part of her mouth obscured by the everpresent leaves in his hair, but her eyes…They glint in the dark, the only light in the front room the afternoon sun at Terra’s back. 

Now...now that’s  _ interesting. _

“W-who’s your friend?” Terra smiles without feeling relieved, searching around her hands for something she may be holding, a weapon or something, but he can’t make anything out in the darkness. Oh, please don’t be an extra-creepy break-in. Please.

“Oh, it’s Aqua.” Ven says so casually Terra almost thinks he’s lying. Aqua.  _ The _ Aqua, the one he’s heard a dozen cautionary tales of from just about everyone in town who has anything to say about the weird shit that happens out here?  _ Aqua _ , the bogeywoman of the Midwest, is in their fucking living room, sitting on the shitty couch they got at Goodwill for 50 bucks.

What the  _ fuck _ .

“Hi, Aqua.” Terra manages, trying and failing to maintain that smile. “I, uh, was just coming home to change.” He tugs at his sweat-soaked tee shirt nervously, deeply aware that he’s immediately started sweating bullets after learning who he’s in the same room as. He was gone for fifteen minutes, just an afternoon run after classes let out, and now... “Seems like you two are busy, so I’ll just—”

“You should sit.” Aqua says, her voice so much gravellier than he could have ever imagined it to be. “Stay and visit.”

“I, uh...sure. Okay. Yeah. Can I, uh, turn on the lights?” Her pupils  _ shine _ , locked on him and unmoving. As his eyes have adjusted to the dark, he’s gotten a better look at her, too, what looks like black hair cut short around her face, and dark hair all over her forearms. Her nails look... _ sharp _ .

“No.” Aqua lets go of Ven’s midsection with one arm, patting the couch next to her. “Come right over here.”

“Okay.” Deep breaths. This is fine. Terra crosses the room, sitting down at Aqua’s insistence.

“Dude, you forgot the door.” Ven wiggles out of Aqua’s arms like it’s no big deal and jogs across the room. Terra, meanwhile, is frozen in place by Aqua’s head tracking to where he is, her gaze all the more arresting because of her proximity. She’s turned to face him fully, her half-buttoned flannel against the chill revealing pale skin down to her sternum, and that’s where he stops looking and looks away entirely, trying not to scream. She’s hot. She’s hot and  _ staring at him  _ and she’s  _ the scariest thing he’s ever been in the same room as.  _ He’s met trolls, actual cave trolls, who reek, and this girl is by far scarier than the guy four feet taller and two hundred pounds heavier than him who actually said the ‘grind your bones to make my bread’ line to him and  _ meant it. _

__ “Look at me.” Distantly, somewhere out in the world, Terra is vaguely aware that Ven just shut the door, because the whole room goes dark except for that shine in Aqua’s eyes next to him when he complies. “What’s your name?” Her voice is quieter, but the steel in it doesn’t fade a bit. It reminds him a little of a professor, someone who is used to speaking to people and being heard, and not just heard but listened to. Not a professor, then, but an authority figure.

“Terra.” He can scarcely raise his voice, whispering his own name like a secret. “I’m Terra.”

“Mm.” She huffs, taking a deep breath through her nose. “Ven told me about you. Quite a bit.”

He told her about him.  _ Ven talked about him to her? _ What the fuck, this isn’t just the boogeyman here to kill them both, Ven  _ knows _ Aqua?

“Terra’s great!” Ven slips into the conversation, and both Terra and Aqua turn to him at once, Terra shocked and Aqua’s lips parting back in a snarl that stops halfway. “We’ve been friends since grade school. I mean, I was homeschooled, but he lived next door, and he liked climbing my tree.” Ven shrugs, the  _ what-can-you-do _ implied. He immediately sits back down in her lap like nothing, and actually grabs one of her hands and wraps it back around him. And, miracle of miracles, she visibly relaxes, her expression softening. Ven’s always had that effect around people, but  _ fuck _ is Terra glad of it now.

“Is that so.” She looks back at him, her face passive. “Do you find us strange, Terra?”

“Hey, c’mon, don’t be mean.” Ven wags an arm above him, pawing at her face, and Terra freezes for when she might strike but nothing comes. The girl who trashed a bar out in Kenosha and put 10 people in the hospital because someone touched her arm just lets Ven paw at her face? “He’s met tons of people like us, he’s great.”

“How do you two know each other?” Terra says conversationally, hoping Aqua doesn’t notice the intensity with which he is sweating. He was already pretty gross from his run, but if this goes on longer it’s going to get much worse before it gets better.

“Friend of friends.” Aqua shrugs, a shockingly mundane movement for her. Who the hell is friends with Aqua who would also be friends with Ven. ...Then again, considering Ven’s occupation, maybe that’s not so strange. Cryptids must need weed, too... “I’m shocked to find this is our first meeting. Have we never crossed paths even once before?”

“No, I think I’d remember.” Terra laughs once, high and sharp, and immediately regrets it. “So, this has been really great, but, I uh, I kinda need to change, and our couch is grungy enough as is. Can we, maybe, continue this discussion later?”

“I would like that.” Aqua says, quirking an eyebrow at him that he can see even in the darkness. “Ventus and I have other business, in any case. Maybe next time will be more...pleasant.”

“Right.” Terra looks to Ven, who is clearly staring innocently up at him as he stands. “It was good to meet you, uhh, Aqua. See you.” He does everything but turn tail and bolt, keeping his eyes locked on Aqua as he exits the room and makes for safety.

Aqua’s eyes don’t leave him until he’s physically out of her line of sight. And he’ll swear on his grave that she smiled at him at the last moment. Not the smile of a person, the smile someone happy makes.

The smile of a predator about to enjoy a meal.

* * *

Aqua sighs when Terra finally retreats, shaking her head. Ven reaches back up and flaps his hand against her cheek again, grunting. “What are you mad about?”

“You! It’s fucked up, you shouldn’t be mean to Terra, I like him a lot!” Ven huffs, crawling out of her lap and seating himself in Terra’s vacated and rather pungent place. “He gets enough shit as it is from normal people.”

“Someone like him?” Aqua barks out a laugh, disbelieving. “He’s a groupie, Ven. He collects stories, collects our kind as a sad little menagerie. Surely you know his kind.”

“Yeah, no shit. And I’m just gonna keep telling you he’s not doing that! Guess what he’s going to school for. Go on, guess! I’ll wait!” Ven folds his arms across his chest, blowing another falling leaf from his golden hair.

“Natural History. All the better to study such oddities.” Aqua can’t count the number of times she’s met those types, or how many she’s warned off. So many of the stories she’s read about herself are fabricated, lies the people tell themselves about why they were warned away by people like her. The guardians of her kind. 

“ _ Social Work.”  _ Ven retorts, grinning like he won the argument. “He just wants to do stuff for the community around here, so he’s getting to know everybody! He already gets on great with Lea, and he knows a ton of other people, too.”

Oh, she’s well aware of how well he gets on with the locals. Because she’s been watching him for awhile. It hadn’t been hard to identify Terra. As the self-appointed guardian of the area (and so many others like it), she tracks the unwary and the problematic for her kind, watching for signs they will become more than a minor nuisance. She had, in fact, been waiting for him to come back alone to warn him off for good…

And then Ven got home first. And it’s pretty hard to explain to your weed dealer why you broke into his house without explaining that no, she hadn’t realized it was his house too, and no, she really was just trying to scare the strange, muscular young man who seems so very interested in the problems of the local cryptids. Instead...hmm.

There’s something intriguing about him. 

It’s bizarre. She’s  _ never _ found his kind intriguing. Long years of seeing all their little callous, petty reasons for trying to exploit her kind revealed for what they are have hardened her to the daily cruelties greater humankind is capable of. That was true even before she was old enough to have learned the old histories of her people from those who lived it. Worse, the human’s own history bears the same lessons out: humans are not to be trusted any further than necessary.

He reeked of fear, as any of his kind would if they understood who she is, the stories other humans have told of her. She has found it quite useful to be seen as an avenging angel, a terror who strikes the unwary down. But...even through his fear, there was something else.

“Earth to Aqua. You really were here just for him, huh?” Ven’s tucked his knees under his chin, staring at her intently. He can see just as well as her in the dark, and Terra’s made no move to correct the shortage of light anywhere else in the house. “What’s so scary about somebody who wants to help us?”

“Because they don’t know how not to hurt us.” A dozen stories bubble up in her mind, all of humans who didn’t know any better causing problems for her kind, the little oddities of the world that just want to get on with their lives.

“But they can learn. Right? Cuz, I know  _ he _ can learn. He already has, he’s learned soooooooo much since he was young.” Ven sounds hopeful. It almost makes her sad that he could sound so hopeful and still have even the slimmest chance of being wrong. Almost.

“Mm.” Aqua doesn’t say what she’s thinking, getting to her feet instead. “I’ll see you around, Ven.”

“Yeah.” He says, unfolding himself and standing next to her. The uncanny creaking of his limbs never doesn’t make her twitch. “You’re not gonna do anything, right?”

“Not yet.” Try as she might, she can’t help but wonder. Maybe he’s right. Only time will tell.

And she has so much more time than him.

* * *

Terra doesn’t see Aqua again for a few days. He’s not thankful for that until he understands how truly blessed he had been to not have her scaring the shit out of him at the drop of a hat.

Well, maybe that isn’t right. Aqua seems like...okay, she’s fucking terrifying. But that’s just because he knows her reputation, he thinks. And Ven repeatedly insisted that she’s not as bad as everyone says. Maybe she’s….maybe she’s okay. They can’t all be true, right? She’s been seen across the midwest, with sightings hundreds of miles away from each other and yet within hours of each other, so clearly some of them are fake. 

Right?

Whatever. Why does he even care? He’s almost done with his degree, but that doesn’t mean he’s out of the woods with Professor Eraqus and his child psychology term paper. Which probably contributes to why it took him 20 minutes to notice Aqua sitting across from him in the campus library, and definitely is the primary reason why he screams at the top of his lungs when he sees her. Thankfully, the library was empty, having just opened 45 minutes ago (he thinks better in the morning, he thinks), so he just has to wave to the student librarian and mouth ‘sorry’ to get off without getting thrown out.

“You’re rather jumpy.” Aqua says, her voice low. The big bad werewolf of the west still obeys library decorum, apparently. Her hair isn’t black, like he thought it was in the dark, but a deep, rich blue, and her complexion is lighter than he thought it was, too, though she’s definitely seen her share of sun.

“Hi?” Terra replies, trying not to let the spike of hear in his chest show on his face. “You startled me.”

“I have that effect on people.” Aqua leans forward, plucking the book he had been reading from its resting place on the desk, examining it while she leans her chin on the heel of her palm.  _ “The Exceptional Child: Inclusion in Early Childhood Education.” _ She reaches over, plucking another book from the stack next to him, examining it with the same bored look.  _ “Anti-Bias Education in the Early Childhood Classroom: Hand in Hand, Step by Step. _ ” She sets the book down, staring at him like she’s formed a new opinion of him in this moment.

“What?” He crosses his arms, leaning back in his chair. “I care about this stuff.”

“Mm. I’m sure you do.” She continues to stare at him, her expression utterly neutral. “You knew Ventus as a sapling, yes?”

Terra nods. “I grew up right next door. His parents were very protective, but Ven’s always been...adventurous. And...well, my parents didn’t know any better, so I was trying to climb his tree. I guess his tree is much older than him, or it grows faster, I haven’t asked.” He still feels embarrassed, recounting it. Aqua’s expression doesn’t change once, an impassive mask of neutrality. “He was really excited to hang out with another kid. They were homeschooling him, trying really hard, too. They did a good job, looking back at it with what I know now?” He smiles, thinking of the day Ven charged out of his house, waving his GED diploma like a flag. “But I know he just wanted to go to school with other kids. It was all he ever talked about.”

“Not all of us feel the same way.” Just the slightest edge in her voice tells him how she feels about the matter herself.

“Yeah. I get it. But I think it’s crap that kids like him can’t even get the chance to try. So...yeah. I care about this stuff. Used to be that kids like me didn’t get a fair shake of it either. We fixed that, and we can fix this, too.”

Aqua huffs, standing. She stares down at him, that same neutral expression that hasn’t changed a bit since she startled him cracking, her lip twitching for a moment before settling back into a firm line. “Right.”

* * *

The next time he saw her was as he was leaving the gym a week later. This time, at least, he had the presence of mind to have a spare change of clothes. She’s standing on the sidewalk out front of the university gym, arms crossed and leaning on one of the cement bollards. He realizes then that she’s wearing the same clothes as before, the faded grey flannel and blue jeans with boots that he’s positive must be steel-toed.

“Hi again.” He greets her, stopping a few feet away. “Are you following me?”

“You have a very inflated sense of your importance if you think that’s true.” Aqua says, unfolding her arms and slipping her hands into her pockets. “I am a free citizen, doing as I please.”

“Uh huh. Well, I’m walking home.” He points in the direction of home, a mile or two away. Campus housing is way too expensive, even (or especially) on a weed dealer and college student’s combined income, so they settled for something a bit further away. “See you.”

“Ah. I was just headed that way.” Aqua says, pushing off the bollard and matching his pace easily. She’s shorter than him by nearly a foot (he’s used to that, especially with Ven as a best friend), but when she looks up at him out of the corner of her eye he can’t help but feel a twinge of worry. “Am I bothering you?”

“Not at all.” He lies. “Do you live around here?” God, he hopes not.

“Invasive, aren’t you?”

“Just making conversation. And, well, you already know where we live.” Terra points out, feeling a rather outsized twinge of fear for standing up to her even in this tiny way.

“Right. No, I don’t. I prefer privacy.”

Put one foot in front of the other. He’s never had to think about walking and talking before, but he finds he does around her. Everything he does around Aqua feels choreographed, possessed of an intentionality he doesn’t control. Moving to her beat, and not his own. It’s strange.

He thinks he might like it. He’s still figuring it out.

“Yeah, I feel that. Small towns are traps for shitty rumors.” He leaves out his own experience with the same. “Ven can be pretty invasive to be around, sometimes. I’m just lucky he already knows all my dark secrets, or I’d be worried.”

“Ah, dark secrets? I’ll have to ask him all about them.” Aqua smiles to herself, only for a moment. “Share one, maybe?”

“I...really?” Terra slows, finally looking over at her properly, and she stares up at him, that same unreadable expression from the library back again. “Okay. I stole the Mile 420 sign outside town before they changed it to 419.9, back when we were still in middle school. I gave it to Ven, it’s in his room now.”

“Over his garden, I assume.” Aqua looks away from him, but not before he catches her smiling again.

“Right. He thinks he’s got THC in his sweat, or something else. When Lea comes around, they always end up burning one of his leaves and I swear, it smells like weed.”

“Everything Ven touches smells like weed already. Believe me.” Aqua huffs, blowing air out of her nose in a distinctly canine-esque way that he can’t help but feel a strange humor at. 

“That probably doesn’t help. Is it bad?”

“It can be, at times.” She looks back towards him, and he looks away, back to the sidewalk. One foot in front of the other, Terra. Don’t get lost thinking things you shouldn’t. “You smell of it, too, but not as badly. And other things.”

He can’t bring himself to ask exactly what. The words stick in his throat, and instead they walk in silence the rest of the way, until they’re standing on his doorstep.

“Well, this is me.” He says, grinning nervously.

“It is.” Aqua puts her hands in her pockets, utterly serene as she stares up at him. “I know you’re wondering. You smell of fear.” She takes a deep breath through her nose, her eyes fluttering shut for a moment as she does. “And longing.”

Terra swallows hard, every thought in his head slamming into one another as they try to exit his mouth, none escaping instead. He opens his mouth to say something, but Aqua’s hand closes it for him. 

“Don’t. Save it for another time.” She lingers for a moment, her hand on his cheek. The nails on her index and middle finger are shorter than the others, he can tell from the way they don’t dig into his face quite as much. And then it’s gone, she’s turned away, walking back up the driveway. She doesn’t look back at him, but he watches her until she passes out of sight.

* * *

The third time they meet, it’s a shock. Ven was visiting family for the weekend (across town, not that the town was particularly big in the first place). So when the doorbell rang, Terra just assumed it was Ven forgetting his keys and back for his toothbrush or something else equally mundane. Which is why so he didn’t bother to get a shirt or his binder, instead grabbing a pair of basketball shorts from his floor and tugging them on as he made his way to the door. This late at night, nobody’s gonna see his chest for long anyway.

“Hang on, dude, jeez.” Terra gripes when the doorbell chimes again, working the lock and swinging the door wide open.

“Hello.” Aqua says, pushing him into the room and kicking the door shut behind her. Her hand finds his neck, nails biting into skin just short of drawing blood, her thumb on his carotid. He doesn’t move an inch, eyes wide in fear. In the dark, her eyes shine like they did the first time they met, golden rings in the dark. She hooks a leg behind his and pushes down as she pulls it from under him, hurling him to the ground and straddling his chest. He’s far too out of his mind with fear to worry about her sitting on his tits. No, he has bigger problems.

In the seconds that had passed, he hadn’t had even a moment to understand what he was seeing. But here, he could pause as Aqua stared down at him, stripped to a simple pair of black panties and nothing else, her skin against his. Did she come here naked? Again, he’s overwhelmed by the feeling of intentionality from before, opening his mouth to breathe enough to sustain the rapid-fire beating of his heart. He can’t speak, afraid to break the silent regard they are giving one another.

Aqua leans lower, her hand closing again over his neck, fingernails poised against his windpipe. What is she trying to say? That she can rip his throat out now, kill him here and now without even trying? If he smells of fear, he must stink of it now, the thought running through his head of how easily she could have done this at any time, the uncanny strength in her that so easily took control of the situation, of him.

“You know why I’m here.” She growls, the gravel in her voice out in full force. Her grip tightens, a trickle of blood running down his neck where the longer nails have split flesh. “Are you afraid of me?”

He swallows, a shiver running down his spine. He can scarcely breathe now, the moment overwhelming every sense of self-preservation in his body. “Yes.” When he says it, there isn’t a trace of fear in his voice, only reverence.

Aqua stares at him, lips parted, for a long time. Longer than he can count, longer than he can stand. Finally, she releases his neck, dragging her nails up his face almost gently, across his cheek, his temple, his scalp, where she seizes a handful of his hair in a vise grip.

“Good.” He can hear fabric rip, Aqua reaching between them with her free hand and throwing something aside callously. The something must have been her panties, because she shifts off his chest and moves upward, her legs on either side of his head. She looks down at him, tilting her head just so at him for a moment before pressing herself against his lips, a shock of blue pubic hair with it.

He inhales hard through his nose, almost losing himself in the scent of her skin before opening his mouth obediently. She settles more of her weight against him, following her part of the dance they’ve become locked in now. The choice was made the moment he spoke, and now he acts as she has dictated he must, his tongue moving quickly upwards against and into her. His heart hammers against his sternum, taking deep breaths through his nose as he fights to give her what she wants, to not grow overwhelmed by everything about her. The unbelievable strength in her thighs against his head, the terrifying weight of her that settles down against him more and more by the moment, the indescribable taste of her skin and her arousal on his tongue.

Terra struggles to stay in the game, only the distant noises of pleasure that reach him from Aqua’s throat to guide him. He can feel blood in his scalp from her nails, a second hand joining the first to hold him in place as she ruts against his face, dragging herself against his chin and riding him more brutally than he could ever have imagined.

“Nnh…” Aqua hisses from above, tugging his head harder upwards against her. “Fuck. Better than I thought you’d be.” The unexpected praise is followed by a crushing weight from both sides of his head, her thighs tightening around him. It hurts, but not badly enough for him to stop, to tap out. He reaches up for the first time, taking hold of a thigh for leverage and pushing himself up against with every ounce of strength he still has, his tongue thrashing inside her. “Haaah, fuck, don’t stop, you bastard…There, right there, right thaaah!” Aqua pushes him away, her grip on him released by her orgasm as she teeters away on her knees, gasping for air and collapsing back hard onto his chest.

“Are you…” Oh, god, everything hurts so much. Eating pussy like your life depends on it really takes it out of you, evidently. Terra sucks in a much-deserved breath, coughing and wiping his face. Aqua remains sprawled out on top of him, panting for breath. Finally, he hesitantly reaches up for her, taking hold of her thigh for a moment only for her to slip free and away, getting to her feet and walking away from him. Walking towards the door. “Hey, hang on!”

“What?” She turns halfway, her hand on the door handle.

“What the fuck was that?” Terra sits up, massaging muscles in his neck and rolling his shoulders. “You’re just going to leave naked?”

“I’m not putting the panties back on.” She points to where the shredded mess she made of them lies on his carpet.

“Okay, at least let me give you something to wear then. Shit.” Terra crawls to his feet, grunting. Oh, his back hurts something fierce. Definitely a new place for carpet burn for him. He starts to walk away to his room, but Aqua clears her throat and makes him turn back to her. What could it possibly be now?

“Give me your shorts.”

_ “What?”  _ Terra laughs. “I have clean sweats in my room, just—” She tilts her head at him, and he gives up. “You know what? Okay. Whatever.” Hooking a thumb under the waistband he tugs his shorts to the floor, stepping out of them and holding them out to her. “You want em? Keep em.” With the way her eyes shine in the dim light, it’s perfectly clear that she’s staring at him, but for once it’s not at his face. It doesn’t take a genius to follow her gaze from his chest down to his crotch, where she was probably expecting his cock to be. “Take it or leave it, girl.”

She takes it, pulling his shorts from his hand and putting them on. The drawstring barely goes tight enough for them to fit her, hanging low on her hips. “...Thank you.”

“Yeah, don’t worry about it. I got those at Target, they cost 10 bucks.” He smiles insincerely.

“Not for the shorts. For...that.” Aqua pauses, looking up at him again. “I was wrong about you.”

“Yeah, well. You’re not the only one in this town who was.”

“Mm.” Aqua turns away, opening the door and pausing again. “This was nice.”

“For one of us, maybe.” Terra crosses his arms, frowning at himself. Don’t be shitty, dude. “Maybe next time we can make this a mutual thing.”

“...Of course.” Aqua blinks in surprise. She says it so matter of factly, like anything else would have been rude. “Until then.” She walks outside, picking up her usual flannel and jeans from where they lay on his doorstep. ...Wait, what? Did she just steal his shorts just because? She closes the door behind her before he can ask. Standing in his own living room buck naked, Terra sighs and slaps his face with both hands, groaning. He’s going to need a very long, cold shower to get back to sleep tonight.

* * *

In the morning, Terra crawls out of bed absurdly early as usual, grunting at every little ache on his torso that seems to have tripled in the few hours that have passed since Aqua visited. He’s actually got  _ bruises _ on his neck from her, like somebody stuck him in a vise and left him there for 20 minutes (which is close enough to the truth, he guesses). Pulling on a pair of sweats and a tank top over his binder, Terra wanders through the house, hunting for a bottle of painkillers and some rolling papers.

“I’m sorry.” Aqua’s voice from the front door makes him nearly jump out of his skin as he was rummaging through the kitchen drawers. He spins, laughing in disbelief to himself.

“Can you please at least knock before you break into my house?” Terra sighs, relaxing at least a little. If last night is any proof, she’s not going to try to kill him...immediately, at least. And this time she’s got clothes on, which is probably for the best. He walks into the living room, sitting down and pulling a bag of weed from a drawer in the side table. “What are you apologizing for, besides breaking and entering?”

“Last night.” She crosses the room, sitting down next to him and fixing him with her usual uncanny stare. “I...sometimes, I assume too much of others. We, people like me, are rarely treated fairly, and I’ve gotten used to returning the favor. I wasn’t fair to you.” She looks away, sighing. “I’ve been watching you for quite some time, you know. Waiting for the slip that proves you really are what I expected.”

“Sorry, did you just admit to stalking me?” Terra pauses his rolling, glancing over at her. Not that that’s a particular surprise, given how the last few days have gone, but...

“I’m apologizing, aren’t I?” She looks back at him, smiling. Her canines are a lot larger than he expected, even knowing what she is. He finds he doesn’t mind that, all of a sudden. “Last night was...a test, of sorts. Of both of us. This.”

“Did I pass?” He finishes rolling the joint, hunting for a lighter in the drawer until he hears a familiar click from his side and a lick of heat near his hand. Aqua lights the joint and plucks it from his hand, taking a deep pull and holding it for a long time before exhaling.

“You tell me.” Wisps of smoke still play around her parted lips. He leans in, deeply aware of her eyes finally, mercifully closing as he kisses her. Her tongue is rough, strong, and she hooks an arm around his neck as she kisses him back, the taste of weed and something coppery he doesn’t want to think about filling his head. She’s surprisingly gentle with him this time, none of that terrifying, exhilarating strength coming to bear against him as she pushes him down onto his back on the couch, her whole body pressing against his.

“I-I think that’s a yes.” Terra manages when she finally lets up, pushing back up and away and passing him the half-burned joint that she had been holding away from them both. “You know, it’s bad manners to waste your host’s weed.”

“You don’t mind.” Aqua says conversationally. “Or would you have preferred I stop sooner?”

“No.” Terra takes as long a puff as he can manage with what’s left, exhaling through his nose as he sits back up. “No, I wouldn’t have.”

“I thought so.” Aqua smiles at him, and he can’t help but smile back. “I’m sorry, for making this more difficult than it had to be. I have...a lot to learn, I think.”

“C’mon, stop. You already apologized enough.” He shrugs. “We all have a lot to learn about each other, even human to human. We’re not any different on that front.”

“Mm.” She holds out her hand, and Terra passes her what’s left of the joint. “I’ll have to return to the basics and start from there.” She finishes it off, stubbing it out in a crowded ashtray they keep under the couch. “Was I too forceful, last night?”

“No.” Terra says, his heart double-timing at the mere mention of last night. “No, not at all.”

“Good. Because I don’t know if I can be gentler than that.” She stares at him, unblinking, and he knows at last that it’s not an expression of neutrality, but one of interest. Maybe he’s not the only one who reeks of desire, or however she put it.

“Want to test that?” Terra pushes himself to his feet, standing over her and holding out a hand.

“I thought you’d never ask.” Aqua takes his hand, pulling him back down onto the couch and on top of her, grinning up at him. And then she twists, hurling him off the couch and onto the floor and rolls on top of him, settling onto his legs comfortably. “There. This is much better.”

“I have a bed.” Terra grumbles, his back already itching something fierce even with two layers between it and the carpet that so recently wounded it.

“That’s not as fun.” She leans forward, hands on his shoulders holding him down. “Are you still afraid of me?”

“Yes.” He can’t help that same tone from last night creeping into his voice, equally awed and reverent.

“Good.” Aqua leans closer, her voice a low rumble in his ear. “If you’d have said anything else, I’d have killed you in a second.” Even as she kisses his neck, the faintest whisper of unbearably sharp teeth against his skin, he can’t help but be thankful that his stupid, horny brain is still in touch with it’s inner monkey enough to be afraid of the predator sitting in his lap.


End file.
